This is Marine Conservation | ocean science, stories, and solutions to protect our blue planet

Ep. 019: Ever wondered about the life of an oyster before it hits your plate?
This week's guest is oceanographer Jacqueline Rosa. She spent a year and a half monitoring the surface and bottom of the bay, plus six months raising oysters in three kinds of farming gear. One of those was Flip Farm, a New Zealand–designed system that's getting Rhode Island oyster farmers' attention. She did all of this after a decade away from school, working at marine science nonprofits and in outdoor education.
In this episode, we talk about:
What an oyster "seed" actually is (you'll hear me realize my lack of knowledge on the topic in real time)
The farmer who knew about a problem at his site before any sensors did
Which gear lost the most oysters, and the two culprits behind it
Whether ocean acidification is showing up in Narragansett Bay
The cold email that led to her funded master's project
Why her ten years in the workforce helped her succeed as a grad student
Stick around to the end for what's giving Jacque hope for the ocean right now. It's a lovely one :)

EPISODE SHOW NOTES (click for all the links!)

Connect with Jacqueline on LinkedIn

Looking to break into the world of marine conservation, but don’t know where to start? I’ve got you! Download my free resource, the Aspiring Marine Conservationist’s toolkit at caseysnook.com/toolkit and start making waves in your career today 🌊


Podcast website
Casey's Instagram - @caseysnook_
Podcast Instagram - @thisismarineconservation
Say hello! Contact Casey here.

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If you loved this episode, it’d mean the world if you took a moment to subscribe and leave a review and/or rating wherever you’re listening! Your support helps this podcast reach more ocean lovers and aspiring marine conservationists just like you. Thank you!

Ep 018: Fishing charter captains don't care about conservation, right? Wrong.
Coral Aiello started working on her dad's charter boat as a 14-year-old mate. Sixteen years later, she's the captain and her dad works the deck. 
In this episode, Coral shares why she believes fishers care about the ocean more than most, how she brings fish tagging aboard her charters, and what her seat on the Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Council has taught her. Plus: warming waters, the "Professional Hooker" story, and going from law-school plans to captain's license.
We talk about being a woman in a male-dominated industry, the reality behind the "dream job," and how she folds conservation into every charter. This one is honest, funny, and full of heart. 🎣

EPISODE SHOW NOTES (click for all the links!)

Connect with Coral
Book a charter fishing trip with Coral!
Follow Coral on Instagram @professional.hooker
Follow Coral on Facebook: Professional Hooker Fishing

Looking to break into the world of marine conservation, but don’t know where to start? I’ve got you! Download my free resource, the Aspiring Marine Conservationist’s toolkit at caseysnook.com/toolkit and start making waves in your career today 🌊

Podcast website
Casey's Instagram - @caseysnook_
Podcast Instagram - @thisismarineconservation
Say hello! Contact Casey here.

SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW
If you loved this episode, it’d mean the world if you took a moment to subscribe and leave a review and/or rating wherever you’re listening! Your support helps this podcast reach more ocean lovers and aspiring marine conservationists just like you. Thank you!

Ep 017: Melissa Hobson is one of the most published ocean writers around, with bylines in National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, Scientific American, The New York Times, and The Guardian. After she was peer-pressured into learning to scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef, she slowly transitioned her career from PR to writing about the oceans. 
There are so many options for building a marine career that isn't "scientist," and Melissa shows us just how incredible a career in ocean writing can be. 
We talk about the portfolio-less cold email that landed her the cover of a dive magazine, the one question every good pitch has to answer (it works for job applications too), and how ocean stories break days before the rest of the world hears about them.
 She also talks about her "conservation Trojan horse" trick for slipping the important stuff into a fun animal story, where she really lands on AI as someone who writes for a living, and the citizen science projects that let you help the ocean from your laptop, even if you're hundreds of miles inland.
If you've ever wanted to work in the ocean space but not as a scientist, this one's for you.

EPISODE SHOW NOTES (click for all the links!)

Connect with Melissa!
Visit Melissa's website 
Melissa Hobson on LinkedIn — where she shares most of her published stories

Looking to break into the world of marine conservation, but don’t know where to start? I’ve got you! Download my free resource, the Aspiring Marine Conservationist’s toolkit at caseysnook.com/toolkit and start making waves in your career today 🌊

Podcast website
Casey's Instagram - @caseysnook_
Podcast Instagram - @thisismarineconservation
Say hello! Contact Casey here.

SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW
If you loved this episode, it’d mean the world if you took a moment to subscribe and leave a review and/or rating wherever you’re listening! Your support helps this podcast reach more ocean lovers and aspiring marine conservationists just like you. Thank you!

Ep 016: Dr. Liberty Boyd went to college to become a teacher, but walked out a sea turtle scientist. In this episode, we get into the decade-long question that pulled her in: what are sea turtles actually doing for 99% of their lives when they're not up on the beach nesting?
For her Ph.D. research, Liberty tracked turtles across the Bahamas, Bermuda, and Australia using cameras, underwater microphones, and Apple-Watch-style motion tags. She breaks down, in plain language, how each one works and what they revealed. We talk about turtles that steer around boats, why the jellyfish-eaters roam so much farther than seagrass munchers, the harmful algal bloom research she's worked on most recently, and the postdoc distinction she wishes someone had explained to her sooner.
She also shares a piece of career news you're hearing here first, and the decade-long relationship behind it.
Whether you're chasing a marine science career or you just love turtles, this one's for you. 🐢

EPISODE SHOW NOTES (click for all the links!)

Connect with Dr. Liberty
Follow Libertyology on Instagram
Follow Libertyology on TikTok

Looking to break into the world of marine conservation, but don’t know where to start? I’ve got you! Download my free resource, the Aspiring Marine Conservationist’s toolkit at caseysnook.com/toolkit and start making waves in your career today 🌊

Podcast website
Casey's Instagram - @caseysnook_
Podcast Instagram - @thisismarineconservation
Say hello! Contact Casey here.

SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW
If you loved this episode, it’d mean the world if you took a moment to subscribe and leave a review and/or rating wherever you’re listening! Your support helps this podcast reach more ocean lovers and aspiring marine conservationists just like you. Thank you!

Ep 015: Did you know part of Narragansett Bay was closed to shellfishing since before World War II, and that it only reopened a couple of years ago?
I didn't fully understand what that comeback meant until I sat down with Chris Dodge, the Narragansett Baykeeper at Save The Bay. Chris holds one of only about 300 Waterkeeper positions on the planet, which basically makes him the eyes, ears, and voice of the Bay. I wanted to know what that job actually looks like day to day. Somewhere between raw sewage, a secret tunnel under Providence, and what he calls a "biomagnified bomb of bacteria," I ended up way more hopeful about the future of our Rhode Island's bay than when we started.
In this episode, we get into:
What a Baykeeper actually does all day (spoiler: no two days look alike)
Why, in Rhode Island, you often have no way of knowing when sewage hits the water you swim in
The 3-mile tunnel under Providence that brought shellfishing back after 80 years
How more than half the Bay's watershed sits in another state
Chris's advice for breaking into marine conservation when the big orgs feel out of reach
Whether you're chasing a career on the water or just love Narragansett Bay, this one will leave you a little more optimistic about what's possible. 🌊

EPISODE SHOW NOTES (click for all the links!)

Connect with Chris 
@narrabaykeeper on Instagram — Chris's weekly beach-closure and bacteria updates
Save The Bay — volunteer, donate, or explore the grounds on the Providence–Cranston border

Looking to break into the world of marine conservation, but don’t know where to start? I’ve got you! Download my free resource, the Aspiring Marine Conservationist’s toolkit at caseysnook.com/toolkit and start making waves in your career today 🌊

Podcast website
Casey's Instagram - @caseysnook_
Podcast Instagram - @thisismarineconservation
Say hello! Contact Casey here.

SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW
If you loved this episode, it’d mean the world if you took a moment to subscribe and leave a review and/or rating wherever you’re listening! Your support helps this podcast reach more ocean lovers and aspiring marine conservationists just like you. Thank you!